We’ve just unveiled the entire trio of posters for Shifting. The print copies arrived at No. 76 yesterday and we immediately started into a redecorating spree down the front of the Arts Office. There’s currently a big A0 version in the main window of the arts office with lots of other ones decorated elsewhere. As you can see, the set of 3 form one main poster when they’re put together so we’ve got a lot of each. Roughly speaking, it breaks down as 25 posters of the individual posters, 15 large versions of the main poster, 10 landscape versions of the main poster and the aforementioned A0. If there’s one thing we don’t do by half, it’s our posters. It’s without doubt the most important part of promoting a play. And already these posters are getting some passers by stopping and checking out the display. Yellow is a colour we haven’t really used in the colour palette for any of our shows before and we thought it was a nice youthful, summery colour for the play. Also, Kilkenny colours for a Kilkenny play! The new posters also got posted around the town yesterday so we’re hoping with their yellow, eye catching design, it’ll grab a few eyes and persuade them to visit No. 76 when Shifting plays from April 18th – 23rd. Here’s the entire collection!

Well, there you have it. Scratcher is done and dusted. We built things up, had a ball, broke them down and we’re going to build even better things in their place. That place will be Shifting, coming to the Arts Office in April but we’re allowing a few days of dust to settle on Scratcher before we kick off again.

So how did it all go?

In fairness, it was a fantastic week. We had good numbers for the opening night and had to operate a waiting list for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, something we’ve never done before but, for the most part, it worked out. People who were unable to get tickets having turned up on any of the nights in question were able to walk away with tickets for other nights (barring Saturday, of course) and as it happened, over the course of the week, we wound up increasing the capacity gradually from 70 to 80.

Lessons were learned, the craic was had, experiences shared – but that’s part of the residency. We’re here to work, to build, to devise, to share and at the end of the day, put on a cracking good show. Judging by the reactions from the audience across the week I think we can say that we’ve achieved that. Initial reviews and feedback have been great but good, bad, or otherwise, feedback is very much something we always welcome so if you made the show last week, leave a comment and let us know what you thought.

In true Devious fashion, everything lined up right before the deadline. Costume, seating, rostrum, late prop additions, set dressing, sound, lights and more. On that note, we do have people to thank who weren’t directly involved in the production but without whose suppose the show would have been something completely different altogether. Those include Maeve Butler at The Hub, Cillin Hill for arranging the seating for the venue for the week; Vincent Dempsey and Barnstorm Theatre for the use of rostrum and rails to created the tiered seating in the arts office; Barry Reilly of the Bridgebrook Arms in Thomastown and Peter Roberts of The Mill Studio for provision of par can lighting for the week. We’re quite resourceful when it comes to getting props, costumes and technical equipment for shows but seating and lighting are two things that don’t come with the Arts Office space.

Having wrapped on Saturday, Monday was spent emptying the Arts Office and resetting things to zero, literally. Seats gone, carpet being cleaned, walls painted, gaps filled, back to new. Until next week. Next week we ramp things up again with the introduction of Shifting, the second piece of our residency, penned by young-writer-in-residence John Kennedy and we’ll have details on all of that mighty soon. We’ve also got a ton of photos to get through on the Scratcher front as well to share with you online. We’ve also had the entire production filmed and hopefully we’ll get to share some clips with you before Shifting lands.

In the mean time, we’re off to redecorate the office space in the Arts Office. If you’re passing by No. 76, do drop in, you’re most welcome. Finally, our thanks once again to Mary & Niamh here at 76 and everyone who took the time out to catch Scratcher in Dublin and Kilkenny, we hope we kept you suitably entertained.

While theatre exists, we may be beating our actors up in rehearsals. Just a little bit.

But the most important thing, is that Ken (as in me, as in I) gets to sit down during rehearsals, with his feet propped up by fellow actors. Mind you, I’ve already been physically put through a chair, so I figure getting to sit down every now and again isn’t so bad.

Rehearsals are ticking along very nicely, schedules are being hammered out for the final two weeks before we head to Dublin and the record for “keepy uppy” stands at a prestigious 118.

In preparation for Dublin, we hauled the main cast of Scratcher to Dublin yesterday for a few hours at THEATREclub’s space at The Lab on Foley Street, all done under the watchful eye of Annie Ryan, Artistic Director and founder of The Corn Exchange. The feedback and external views on the show, provided by Annie, at this stage of production have proved to be most valuable indeed.

With the show opening in Kilkenny just under three weeks from today, we’ll be opening up the ticket sales this week through DeviousTheatre.com and here at the Arts Office on John Street. They’re not available to buy in physical form just yet, but trust me when I say you’ll be the first to know!

For more rehearsal photos from Scratcher, keep an eye on our own site over at DeviousTheatre.com and if we’re not already linked up on Facebook, drop us a line!

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Art at No. 76

The aim and focus of the Art Residency at No. 76 is to enable the successful applicant to research and develop their practice.
Other aims of the residency are to:
give insights into how and why artists create their work,
build relationships and further promote the Arts,
provide an awareness and further appreciation of the Arts,
cultivate and develop new audiences.
The Kilkenny Arts Office is part of ArtLinks.ie